Ten years from now, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, and countless others who enabled or excused the destruction of Gaza will almost certainly be dead – perhaps passing away peacefully one night during a restful dream.
What they leave behind, however, is a legacy shaped not only by their actions but by how those actions are remembered. History books may brand them as monsters or war criminals – or, just as easily, frame them as leaders caught in a “complicated” era, sanitizing their complicity. In fact, it’s entirely possible the dominant narrative will begin with the attacks of October 7th, burying sheer horrors beneath footnotes and erasing decades of blockades, bombings, and the slow suffocation inflicted on Gaza long before that day.
Memory, as always, will belong not to the victims, but to the victors – those with the power to shape not just the narrative, but the future. Gaza’s ruins will one day be rebuilt, and in the eyes of western imperialism, the most “natural” architects of that future are, of course, the very forces responsible for its destruction.
Names like Tony Blair – widely condemned for his role in the Iraq invasion of 2003 – have already been floated for leadership in Gaza’s reconstruction. Trump, whose administration has funneled weapons and diplomatic cover to Israel over this last year, along with during his first term back in 2017, has publicly suggested turning Gaza into a “Riviera”-style resort zone, drawing on his background as a real estate developer with a history of branding luxury hotels.
Blatant, modern day imperialism on full display for all the world to see, the same world that failed to stop any of this from happening.
For two years, people marched across the globe, pleading for action. They were ignored. The bombs fell anyway. Global institutions – powerless or complicit – put their futility on full display. UN resolutions were vetoed. The ICC was threatened. Western governments issued carefully worded condemnations, but continued arms sales. Confident in its impunity, Israel carried on without significant interruption – backed by decades of precedent showing there would be no meaningful consequences.
Meanwhile, Gaza has been starved out. By early 2025, humanitarian aid was nearly paralyzed – at times, no aid trucks were allowed in, and when they were, it was in numbers far below what was needed. The World Health Organization warned of imminent famine, and reports confirmed that children were dying from malnutrition. Hospitals collapsed under the weight of blockade and bombardment, crippled by severe shortages of fuel, clean water, and medical oxygen.
With the passage of time, much of this suffering will likely be whitewashed, their perpetrators vindicated by mainstream narratives.
George W. Bush, for example, spent eight years as president overseeing a needless invasion of Iraq that cost billions in US taxpayer dollars and resulted in nearly a million dead Iraqi civilians. During his two terms, Bush was vilified, often accused of war crimes, and even compared with Hitler. And yet once he left the Oval Office, it wasn’t long before the rehabilitation started, with Bush soon dancing on Ellen, promoting his book, and showing off his dog paintings.
Barack Obama spent two terms as president drone-bombing seven countries around the world, only to enjoy retirement kitesurfing and giving paid speeches.
Joe Biden left office with the moniker of “Genocide Joe” for his support of Israel’s bloodbath in Gaza, but has since been spotted on the boardwalk slurping down ice cream.
With the passage of time, what has happened in Gaza over the last few years might easily become just another Iraq invasion, just another series of drone strikes. Yes, it happened. Yes, the world got mad for a little while. But then the world moved on, never holding the people responsible for such atrocities accountable, undoubtedly ensuring that such acts will be repeated again in the future.
In the end, memory is malleable – reshaped not by justice, but by convenience. The cameras turn away, ruins give way to redevelopment, blood is scrubbed from pavement, history is rewritten, and those once seen as villains are slowly folded back into polite society.
Fast forward ten years.
It’s 2035.
“We have to move on,” an American tourist might think to himself, flip-flops clacking against fresh concrete as he exits a Raytheon-sponsored history museum, eyes locking on to a glimmering Trump hotel on the distant Gaza waterfront ahead. “ That stuff happened ten years ago. It was a complicated time.”
Is this the future we want?
There is nothing complicated about what has happened over the last two years. Grotesque horrors have been unleashed upon the Gaza population in real time. We’ve all seen it.
It’s up to us – right now – whether we’re okay with not only setting another precedent that allows those responsible to get away with this, but worse, letting those same people have any say in Gaza’s future.
Source: Antiwar.com.
